<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"The Ninth Judicial Circuit has opened a new veterans court.Officials said at least 120 military veterans are arrested in Orange County, and many of them are caught up in cycles of homelessness and addiction.Of the seven veterans who appeared in court Wednesday, two of them had cases accepted into the program, and two more began the process.State Attorney Jeff Ashton has some concerns about the potential for participants to abuse the program in order to avoid jail time rather than a sincere desire to turn their life around.\"A lot of people have been working incredibly hard behind the scenes to make this happen,\" Judge Jerry Brewer said.Brewer opened the first session of the Orange and Osceola County veterans court. It's intended to keep military veterans who are in trouble with the law out of jail by connecting them to programs and services that can help them with the issues they face.\"I feel privileged as a veteran to come through this court and get into a program,\" veteran Charles Goot said.Goot, 50, is a U.S. Army veteran, who is homeless and has a long history of violating Orlando's open-container law. He was accepted into the program.Instead of jail time, the court will work with Goot to get him into a treatment program and set some goals.\"To gain housing and employment and to get myself off the street and become a functional citizen again,\" Goot said.Brewer said what makes the program different from the state attorney's existing pretrial diversion program is that many of the veterans will be connected with programs run by the Veterans Administration, which has more money to spend than the state.But Ashton did express concern that he believes the program could be abused and must move slowly.\"My opinion is the worst thing we can do in this program is to overpopulate in the beginning. We need to be very careful who can be let in and who can be helped,\" Ashton said.The veterans who participate in the program will have to be approved by the state attorney, and if there is a victim in the case, the victim will have to sign off, as well.For now, veterans court will be held every three weeks or more if the need arises.14277264"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wesh.com/article/orange-county-creates-court-to-deal-with-veterans-accused-of-crimes/4429023>